I liked FFXII back when it released in 2006, but god damn am I enjoying Zodiac Age way more than I thought I would. It is just so much fun.

I went with these classes:

Vaan - Shikari/Foebreaker (Heavy Armor and Main Gauche, how can you pass that up?)Balthier - Archer/Uhlan (Liking this one more than I thought I would. Balthier didn't seem like a magic type so I decided to go with a physical build. Heavy armor and bows with a dope pool of HP.)Fran - Machinist/Red Battlemage (Probably my least favorite build I chose. She is all right, not sure if I should stick with guns or do Mace and Shield. Guns are just so cool!)Basch - Knight/Monk (I feel like when I get some more Espers this could be potentially ridiculous.)Ashe - Bushi/Black Mage (My favorite build. She is just destroying everything that comes in her path. Comboing with katanas and being able to cast offensive magick. Total badass.)Penelo - White Mage/Time Battlemage (A support with crossbows. Not sure if this combo is that good, but it is pretty damn useful currently.)

^I just finished bur-omiscae, so I'm a little farther. I have a tiebreaker/shikari Fran but I've been using hammers and she wrecks. I agree about the uhlan/Archer being awesome, I got an elfin bow for my baasch from a hunt and he was hitting twice as hard as anybody else for a good while. I'm definitely trying a bushi/black mage in my next play through they sound like a blast!

@Starmongoose good to hear that they're not too challenging, I might give a few a go especially the flan. I know there was a snake in the zertinan caverns though, and I remember from playing the vanilla FFXII thats more endgame.

Officially ready to pick my second job for each character. Since before this thread I wasn't even aware of the second job, I do kind of regret my initial choices, but here's what I'm thinking for a final lineup:

EDIT: Nevermind. All this sharing and judging builds is making me super self-conscious. I'll just do what sounds good and not worry about it.

@Isjaki - Great combos!Shikari/Breaker means high STR, 3x Swiftness, Ninja Blades, and Genji Gloves. Probably the best non-mage endgame combo to have and is versatile enough to be useful at all points of the game. Nice!

Archer/Uhlan is actually a really neat idea for a ranged support type. Heavy Armor for STR (SPD can be boosted with certain equips as well) to keep the bow cranking, plus almost all of the Item Lores for support/healing. I'd be interested to see what you can do with this at endgame with Germinas Boots equipped (+50 SPD!).

Machinist/Red is... very unusual, but I think it could totally work. Something to consider: Maces do damage based on MAG and MAG only. So consider swapping between Guns and Mace/Shield depending on things like elemental weakness and such. If you switch to Mace, equip Mystic Armor. With Guns, go Light Armor. However, the REALLY cool use for this build is..... Measures! YEAH! Ok, so Measures are sort of dumb, but hear me out: Red Mage gets you shields and Measures all have 35 Evasion. So you could make a good Evasion tank here with lots of HP and the ability to buff/heal allies in various ways. The only problem is no Shield Block augments. Still, some endgame shields will make that a non-issue. Also, this build also gets the nice Dark Robes/Dark Shot combo which does insane damage.

Knight/Monk is a really good way to get tons of STR on your Knight, as well as some truly ridiculous bonuses with the right Espers; namely, Protectga/Shellga/Esunaga and 2 extra Swiftness augments. Sound good? ;)Remember that Poles target MAGDEF, not DEF, so use them for enemies with high DEF, like Flans. Also, Poles add 30 EVA, so they'll be a go-to if you're tanking with this build until you get good shields and all your Shield Block augments from Knight.

Bushi/Black is so powerful you kinda have to laugh about it. All that MAG being pumped into those Katana. However, the downside of this build is that you lose one or the other class by the end: you'll either be casting OP magicks full time, or be comboing OP Katana full time. You can't really do both at once, so it's kinda nice to have these classes separate. Still, who cares?? Everything will be getting dead either way!

White/Time is a build I am using, so of course I love it. I think it's one of the best healing classes you can have. More HP Lores from Time to keep your healer alive, plus more buffs. All the buffs, in fact! SO MANY BUFFS! You also get a LITTLE damage dealing potential from Time, as well as some good debuffs so that your White isn't just picking her nose while she's not healing. Also, if you get bored at endgame, the right Espers get you Greatswords to go with Time's Heavy Armor and Battle Lores. Fun!

@NickRansbottom - great combos! :PMonk/Breaker is kinda cool in that it gets you Heavy Armor on your Monk, which is the highest STR class in the game. Imagine the death you will rain on Flans et al. Also, once you get Expose/Shear, you'll do even more damage. This class will be a good candidate for Genji Gloves and Berserk.

White/Mach is considered an optimal pairing, at least if you're looking to make White the main part of the combo. Guns don't depend on the character's stats to deal damage, so this means your White Mage can contribute in battle. Late game, it gets even better with Dark Robes/Dark Shot combo and access to Hastega through an Esper. (NOTE: Balthier is pretty slow with Guns and has the worst MAG stat for healing, so consider giving this combo to someone else. Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter that much)

Red/Time isn't a combo I hear much about, but I think it's a cool one! Red Mages can eventually gain access to Greatswords, and Time Mage gives them the Heavy Armor (without Esper) they need to wield them properly. And until that time, ranged support with Crossbows and Protect/Shell/Haste/Bubble means they'll be useful forever.

Archer/Shikari is probably one of the worst combos in the game, but it still works. They're both really similar to each other is all, and therefore don't really complement each other. Still, you get a ranged support character with all the Item Lores you can stand. Once you have all 3 Phoenix Lores, throw a Pheasant Netsuke on this one with an "Ally = KO -> Phoenix Down" Gambit and laugh at your total lack of need for White Magick. A SPD-centric build would keep them doing tons of damage at endgame. Germinas Boots, man.

Knight/Bushi is the exact same combo I have on Ashe (I consider it "canon", fwiw :P). It's fantastic. Tons of Magick Lores to boost the Knight's White Magick. Tons of easier-to-access Battle Lores plus Heavy Armor to really send those Katana into the DPS stratosphere. And then, of course, there's the 3 Swiftness augments as well. Lastly, picture this at the endgame: Excalibur + White Robes. You're welcome. :P

Black/Uhlan is a combo that basically gets you two characters, as these are the two most self-sufficient jobs in the game. So depending on what you want this character to do, you can just switch builds any time. I'm surprised, though, that you went through the whole game without using Black Mage. That's pretty impressive.

@Klutz64 - That's the right way to play, man. Every combo has something unique about it that you can use to win. So have fun!

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

Why does everyone put Bushi on Ashe? Like, I know I did the same, but I find it really odd that I don't think anyone has put it on someone else.

People like Bushi on Ashe because of her high magic and decent strength stats. Again, because katana damage is calculated based on strength and magic, so she's a good candidate for it.

Having said that, I made Ashe a Knight/Time Battlemage. Originally, I was going to make Basch a KNI/BUS combo, but I felt that Ashe would be a better fit for KNI's white magic than Basch. And since I wanted to use all twelve jobs and be (mostly) lore compliant, that meant Basch stuck with BUS. Ashe winding up with TBM is actually perfect, since that's what she is in Revenant Wings.

Okay, follow-up question since so many people seem to have this information I've never seen - is there some in-game resource that tells you about how various stats affect each weapon? 'Cause for Square Enix to do all this crazy voodoo with weapon stats and not actually mention it in-game would be incredibly rude.

I love you for naming these. I thought I was the only one. Nice job on "Arbiter", that's way better than "Pink Mage". :P

Also, no, nothing in the game itself explains weapon damage formulas. It makes the original License Board even worse, since literally nobody would use Maces and such if they didn't know how they worked. "Vaan's STR is 99, why do these Maces still suck!?"Whereas the job class system precludes such things a bit, since only certain classes come with certain weapons and, of course, have the necessary Lores and Equips necessary to make them work.

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

Okay, follow-up question since so many people seem to have this information I've never seen - is there some in-game resource that tells you about how various stats affect each weapon? 'Cause for Square Enix to do all this crazy voodoo with weapon stats and not actually mention it in-game would be incredibly rude.

It would also be incredibly in-line with turn-of-the-century Square

Nope. But if you were paying attention to how FFT did its weapon damage formulas, you might be able to work it out (oh wait, did you find that game impenetrable as well or just straight up missed it? then it sucks to be you).

But yeah, OG FFXII had nothing on this and you kinda had to find out through trial and error (or through guides, online or otherwise). Which was fun given how you had to grind up enough LP to purchase the right to wear that snazzy hat you just blew your scant savings on, while most enemies either fell into one of the two camps of 'speed bump' or 'will wreck your shit five ways from sunday if you even look at them funny', so experimentation was never really at the forefront of a player's mind unless you're looking to sperg.

But then, this was a game that decided to hide an endgame superweapon from players by setting up arbitrary failure conditions on otherwise mundane chests all the way back at the very start and early game segments as well as another one later on, just to be sure.

But then, this was a game that decided to hide an endgame superweapon from players by setting up arbitrary failure conditions on otherwise mundane chests all the way back at the very start and early game segments as well as another one later on, just to be sure.

Wasn't there also, like, 10 chests in the room with the Zodiac Spear and you had to open the correct one first or else lose it at the last second?